As a reminder- here’s where we left off last week…

When we first moved into our house, the home office (which is actually just a basement bedroom) had bypass / sliding closet doors. Here’s a picture from move-in day back in 2008 when the room was still empty.

I always planned to install new doors at some point in time, but then decided that it didn’t make sense to do so until I was ready to do the whole room. So here we are.

We DIY as many projects as we can, but since the closet didn’t have an existing door frame / door jamb, I knew that this project was above our pay grade. I hired a professional who started by removing the track from the old bypass doors.

Then, he began building out the new door frame.

By the end of the day, the new doors were in and ready to be painted, along with the rest of the room. We still need to install the door knobs once they get delivered.

Since our home office is in a basement bedroom, I knew I wanted to paint three walls white to make the room as bright as possible. I chose the same white we used recently in the adjacent bathroom – Sherwin Williams Pure White.

It’s so fresh and bright, even though my poor iPhone photo here doesn’t capture it very well. It will be even better once we install a better light fixture in the room!

My design plans call for painting the fourth wall a deep navy blue. We will be using two blue Ikea Billy bookcases in the room. Here’s a reminder of the design plans so you can see how the blue factors in.

I picked up lots of blue paint swatches from both Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams. I quickly narrowed my options down to the three that looked best next to the blue of the yet-to-be-assembled Billy bookshelves.

We ended up picking Sherwin Williams Naval, and I love how it looks! Again, the light is pretty bad in this iPhone photo, but take my word for it and I’ll get better pictures as we move along.

A LOOK BACK AT ALL MY PAST ONE ROOM CHALLENGE PROJECTS

It can be interesting to see the week-by-week progress of a big project, but if you prefer the satisfaction of the final reveal, check out the eleven One Room Challenge spaces that we’ve completed over the past decade:

Menswear Themed Boy's Bedroom

I participated in my very first One Room Challenge back in the spring of 2014. Baby #2 had recently entered our lives, and needed the nursery, so I designed a menswear themed boy's bedroom for my older son, who was 2.5 at the time. Since that time, the boys now share a different room (also an ORC project below), and we recently made some minor updates to turn this room from a toddler room to a playroom / hangout room.

See the Space

Master Bedroom Makeover Without Replacing the Furniture

The next ORC round, in the fall of 2014, I turned my attention to our master bedroom, which had been largely neglected in the six years since we'd move into our home. I made a big impact in this space without replacing any of the furniture, or even changing the placement of the furniture in the room.

See the Space

Rock 'n' Roll Playroom Under the Stairs

In the spring of 2015, I converted the storage space under our basement stairs into a rock 'n' roll inspired playroom for my boys. At only 3 foot by 12 foot, it's one of the smallest spaces I transformed, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in style and fun! This is still one of my very favorite projects to date, and it was featured in print in 5280 Home magazine!

See the Space

A Laundry Closet That Functions Like a Laundry Room

In the fall of 2015, I finally achieved my goal of making our laundry closet feel and function more like a laundry room by adding tons of style and storage, including removable wallpaper and, a hanging light fixture, and bold cabinets.

See the Space

Modern Master Bathroom Makeover

The following spring, in 2016, I updated our master bathroom to match the "graphic glam" style of the adjoining bedroom. The wall of graphic black and white cement tile and statement light fixtures are the stars of the show. I was thrilled with what a huge transformation we created in this space without replacing any of the existing cabinets or fixtures.

See the Space

Garage Organization with Style

Later that fall, I tackled the much dreaded garage! I was hoping to just create a more functional storage space, but in the process of cleaning and organizing, thanks to some creative DIYs, I also managed to make the garage pretty! I was incredibly honored to have our garage makeover featured on a two-page spread in the March 2018 issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine!

See the Space

A Small Shared Boys' Room with Bunk Beds

In the spring of 2017, my boys (then 3 and 5) were begging for bunkbeds, so we turned the former nursery into a shared boys room, complete with lots of color and tons of storage for books and toys.

See the Space

Modern Kitchen Dining Area

In the fall of 2018, I took on a modern dining room makeover. We added more storage, finally found a solution to an awkward wall, and made a big statement on the kitchen island. And we did it all on a budget.

See the Space

Colorful Rooftop Retreat

In the spring of 2019, we turned our unused deck off of our master bedroom into a colorful and comfortable rooftop retreat for the whole family to enjoy. This deck is perfect for lounging and enjoying the summer weather, and when the sun goes down, it quickly transforms into an outdoor movie theater.

See the Space

Ultimate Game Room

In the spring of 2021, we turned our basement family room into the ultimate game room, complete with a custom-built game table, comfy banquette seating, and tons of hidden storage for all of our games and puzzles. On the other end of the basement, our home theater includes a stylish popcorn and candy bar.

See the Space

Bright Basement Bathroom

In the fall of 2021, we took our orange basement bathroom from bold but boring to a bright and stylish space. The playful artwork reflects our family's love of the theater.

Read More

The post Closet Doors & Paint – One Room Challenge: Week 4 appeared first on Blue i Style.

What would the One Room Challenge be without a few challenges and a little drama? The good news is that I now have the new home office flooring of my dreams. The bad news is that, due to some unexpected challenges, it cost a lot more than we’d planned, and we won’t be continuing these beautiful new floors throughout the rest of the basement as I’d hoped.

Let me explain. After completely cleaning out the office (in last week’s ORC post I showed you how I tackled the huge mess), the first thing on my to-do list was replacing our ugly carpet with new, solid surface flooring.

I wanted the look of hardwood in the home office, but since it’s located in the basement, real wood wasn’t a possibility. I researched our solid surface flooring options and compare the pros and cons of laminate vs LVT. After talking to quite a few people, we were convinced that luxury vinyl tile (LVT) was our best bet. Next up, we compared prices and color options for different LVT brands. Our favorite – and the best deal we found – was CoreTec from CarpetExchange in the color Galveston Oak.

Though we started shopping for the home office, I started envisioning how great it would look to have this flooring throughout the basement family room/game room as well. The sale price was great, so we decided to order enough for the entire basement. The plan was to have the CoreTec installed in the home office first, and then CarpetExchange agreed to hold onto the remainder of our flooring order until we were ready to install it.

But when the installers showed up to get started on the home office, things got complicated. The removed the carpet and pad, and then came upstairs to inform me that unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to lay the CoreTec. Wait, WHAT?!

They took me downstairs to show me the problem. The concrete floor was extremely unlevel, as you can see in the photo below. Laying CoreTec requires a very level surface, so they recommended we choose a new carpet and move on. While this is extremely unfortunate, they tell me it’s not at all uncommon. They said that builders typically don’t bother perfectly leveling the basement concrete floors if the plans call for carpet, because the carpet pad tends to disguise the imperfections.

I wasn’t ready to give up on my solid surface floor dreams just yet, so I called the installation manager and begged and pleaded for other options. They said the only way to make it work was to sand down all of the high spots and pour additional concrete to raise the low spots. The quote for this gave us sticker shock (a couple thousand extra dollars of the office alone), so we decided to compromise. We would spend the additional money to level the home office for the CoreTec, but we’d scrap the plans for the rest of the basement. If the entire family room was as unlevel as the office (and it seems that it most likely is), then the cost to level that full space would be totally prohibitive for us.

So, moving forward in the office, the first step was for them to sand, and sand, and sand some more. Which, of course, meant a fine layer of white dust on everything despite their best efforts to keep the mess to a minimum.

Then, they used Planipatch Fast-Setting Polymer Modified Cement Based Patching Compound to fill in the remaining low spots. We brought in a few fans to help things dry/set a bit quicker.

Finally, a couple of days later, they were finally able to install the CoreTec LVT floors. Rather than laying the planks directly on the concrete, the installers recommended an underlayment for better sound absorption, increased comfort underfoot, and to prevent mold and mildew (although this last one is of much less concern in Colorado basements).

Although it’s disappointing that we won’t be able to continue this flooring throughout the rest of the basement, I’m thrilled with how it looks in the home office.

A LOOK BACK AT ALL MY PAST ONE ROOM CHALLENGE PROJECTS

It can be interesting to see the week-by-week progress of a big project, but if you prefer the satisfaction of the final reveal, check out the eleven One Room Challenge spaces that we’ve completed over the past decade:

Menswear Themed Boy's Bedroom

I participated in my very first One Room Challenge back in the spring of 2014. Baby #2 had recently entered our lives, and needed the nursery, so I designed a menswear themed boy's bedroom for my older son, who was 2.5 at the time. Since that time, the boys now share a different room (also an ORC project below), and we recently made some minor updates to turn this room from a toddler room to a playroom / hangout room.

See the Space

Master Bedroom Makeover Without Replacing the Furniture

The next ORC round, in the fall of 2014, I turned my attention to our master bedroom, which had been largely neglected in the six years since we'd move into our home. I made a big impact in this space without replacing any of the furniture, or even changing the placement of the furniture in the room.

See the Space

Rock 'n' Roll Playroom Under the Stairs

In the spring of 2015, I converted the storage space under our basement stairs into a rock 'n' roll inspired playroom for my boys. At only 3 foot by 12 foot, it's one of the smallest spaces I transformed, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in style and fun! This is still one of my very favorite projects to date, and it was featured in print in 5280 Home magazine!

See the Space

A Laundry Closet That Functions Like a Laundry Room

In the fall of 2015, I finally achieved my goal of making our laundry closet feel and function more like a laundry room by adding tons of style and storage, including removable wallpaper and, a hanging light fixture, and bold cabinets.

See the Space

Modern Master Bathroom Makeover

The following spring, in 2016, I updated our master bathroom to match the "graphic glam" style of the adjoining bedroom. The wall of graphic black and white cement tile and statement light fixtures are the stars of the show. I was thrilled with what a huge transformation we created in this space without replacing any of the existing cabinets or fixtures.

See the Space

Garage Organization with Style

Later that fall, I tackled the much dreaded garage! I was hoping to just create a more functional storage space, but in the process of cleaning and organizing, thanks to some creative DIYs, I also managed to make the garage pretty! I was incredibly honored to have our garage makeover featured on a two-page spread in the March 2018 issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine!

See the Space

A Small Shared Boys' Room with Bunk Beds

In the spring of 2017, my boys (then 3 and 5) were begging for bunkbeds, so we turned the former nursery into a shared boys room, complete with lots of color and tons of storage for books and toys.

See the Space

Modern Kitchen Dining Area

In the fall of 2018, I took on a modern dining room makeover. We added more storage, finally found a solution to an awkward wall, and made a big statement on the kitchen island. And we did it all on a budget.

See the Space

Colorful Rooftop Retreat

In the spring of 2019, we turned our unused deck off of our master bedroom into a colorful and comfortable rooftop retreat for the whole family to enjoy. This deck is perfect for lounging and enjoying the summer weather, and when the sun goes down, it quickly transforms into an outdoor movie theater.

See the Space

Ultimate Game Room

In the spring of 2021, we turned our basement family room into the ultimate game room, complete with a custom-built game table, comfy banquette seating, and tons of hidden storage for all of our games and puzzles. On the other end of the basement, our home theater includes a stylish popcorn and candy bar.

See the Space

Bright Basement Bathroom

In the fall of 2021, we took our orange basement bathroom from bold but boring to a bright and stylish space. The playful artwork reflects our family's love of the theater.

Read More

The post Floor Drama – One Room Challange: Week 3 appeared first on Blue i Style.

The To Do List

In last week’s post, I shared the before photos and design inspiration. Today I’m outlining our to-do list for the home office and talking about how to get started when it feels overwhelming.

1. Completely clear the space
2. Replace carpet with solid surface flooring
3. Install new pull-open closet doors (previously removed the bi-pass closet doors)
4. Paint walls and closet doors
5. Install new light fixture
6. Install new window blind
7. Select / assemble new furniture
8. Select rug
9. Create double sided desk
10. Set up computers / technology
11. Organize new storage spaces
12. Hang gallery wall
13. Hang other art
14. Style the space

Clearing the Space: How to Start a Full Room Reorganization Project

Last week I talked about how our home office became a storage space and how it spiraled out of control. After coming up with the new design plans for this room (the fun part) I had no choice but to finally tackle the mess. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, with projects like this it always gets worse before it gets better. But I’ve learned a few tricks along the way to minimize the pain as much as possible. Let me remind you what we were dealing with…

Clearing out the space felt overwhelming on its own, but I was much more overwhelmed by the idea that it would be a long time before we could move anything back into the space. Of course, a lot of the stuff in the room is ultimately getting donated, sold, or recycled, but there’s just as much that we’re keeping Since there are many steps to tackle before we get to the point of bringing anything back into the room, I needed a plan of how to deal with it all in the meantime.

I began by designating various spaces in our basement family room – a space for donations, a space for items to be recycled, and another space for things that needed to be relocated and put away in another part of the house. Then, I lined our game room with clear bins to sort all of the items that will ultimately go back into the office – mostly books, office supplies, and craft supplies.

Sorting everything as I went helped me make smarter decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of. Additionally, these bins are how I’ll store everything until I’m ready to put things away in the new office. In the meantime, I can stack the bins in the corner of the family room, keeping it all contained and streamlined as much as possible so we don’t feel like we’re constantly living in a disaster zone. And if I need any of these items in the meantime, it will much easier to find things.

After two days of work, I was left with a blank slate! This space is already much better…. the rest of the basement, however… it’s definitely in the it gets worse before it gets better phase, but at least it’s a semi-organized mess for now.

Next Up – New Floors

I was eager to remove the beige commercial-grade carpet from the home office, so I started researching various solid flooring options. Check back next week to see the floor product we selected!

A LOOK BACK AT ALL MY PAST ONE ROOM CHALLENGE PROJECTS

It can be interesting to see the week-by-week progress of a big project, but if you prefer the satisfaction of the final reveal, check out the eleven One Room Challenge spaces that we’ve completed over the past decade:

Menswear Themed Boy's Bedroom

I participated in my very first One Room Challenge back in the spring of 2014. Baby #2 had recently entered our lives, and needed the nursery, so I designed a menswear themed boy's bedroom for my older son, who was 2.5 at the time. Since that time, the boys now share a different room (also an ORC project below), and we recently made some minor updates to turn this room from a toddler room to a playroom / hangout room.

See the Space

Master Bedroom Makeover Without Replacing the Furniture

The next ORC round, in the fall of 2014, I turned my attention to our master bedroom, which had been largely neglected in the six years since we'd move into our home. I made a big impact in this space without replacing any of the furniture, or even changing the placement of the furniture in the room.

See the Space

Rock 'n' Roll Playroom Under the Stairs

In the spring of 2015, I converted the storage space under our basement stairs into a rock 'n' roll inspired playroom for my boys. At only 3 foot by 12 foot, it's one of the smallest spaces I transformed, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in style and fun! This is still one of my very favorite projects to date, and it was featured in print in 5280 Home magazine!

See the Space

A Laundry Closet That Functions Like a Laundry Room

In the fall of 2015, I finally achieved my goal of making our laundry closet feel and function more like a laundry room by adding tons of style and storage, including removable wallpaper and, a hanging light fixture, and bold cabinets.

See the Space

Modern Master Bathroom Makeover

The following spring, in 2016, I updated our master bathroom to match the "graphic glam" style of the adjoining bedroom. The wall of graphic black and white cement tile and statement light fixtures are the stars of the show. I was thrilled with what a huge transformation we created in this space without replacing any of the existing cabinets or fixtures.

See the Space

Garage Organization with Style

Later that fall, I tackled the much dreaded garage! I was hoping to just create a more functional storage space, but in the process of cleaning and organizing, thanks to some creative DIYs, I also managed to make the garage pretty! I was incredibly honored to have our garage makeover featured on a two-page spread in the March 2018 issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine!

See the Space

A Small Shared Boys' Room with Bunk Beds

In the spring of 2017, my boys (then 3 and 5) were begging for bunkbeds, so we turned the former nursery into a shared boys room, complete with lots of color and tons of storage for books and toys.

See the Space

Modern Kitchen Dining Area

In the fall of 2018, I took on a modern dining room makeover. We added more storage, finally found a solution to an awkward wall, and made a big statement on the kitchen island. And we did it all on a budget.

See the Space

Colorful Rooftop Retreat

In the spring of 2019, we turned our unused deck off of our master bedroom into a colorful and comfortable rooftop retreat for the whole family to enjoy. This deck is perfect for lounging and enjoying the summer weather, and when the sun goes down, it quickly transforms into an outdoor movie theater.

See the Space

Ultimate Game Room

In the spring of 2021, we turned our basement family room into the ultimate game room, complete with a custom-built game table, comfy banquette seating, and tons of hidden storage for all of our games and puzzles. On the other end of the basement, our home theater includes a stylish popcorn and candy bar.

See the Space

Bright Basement Bathroom

In the fall of 2021, we took our orange basement bathroom from bold but boring to a bright and stylish space. The playful artwork reflects our family's love of the theater.

Read More

The post Tackling a Full Room Makeover – How to Get Started – One Room Challange: Week 2 appeared first on Blue i Style.

Where have we been?

After about a decade of non-stop home projects, all of that came to a halt around here in 2021 – partly because we’d finished many of the projects on our list (but definitely not all of them). The truth is that we just got too busy with other things.

In 2020, I started a new website with my best friend (Melissa from Polished Habitat). It’s a book recommendations website called The Book Girls’ Guide, and after starting as a fun side project, it quickly became a full-time gig for both of us. In addition to creating curated booklists each week, we also host five different annual reading challenges, moderate a private Facebook group for 13,000+ of our fellow book-lovers, and most recently, we added a discussion forum where our members can participate in book club-style book discussion each month. It’s been a blast, but it also takes up nearly all of our time. Oh yeah… and for two years in there, I was also the PTA President for my boys’ school (during a pandemic, no less), and if you know, you know… that’s a massive time commitment.

Things have been equally busy for Scott. He’s been working at the same commercial real estate consulting firm since just after Cooper was born, and in the summer of 2021, he purchased the company and took over operations. He continues to do the same day-to-day work that he’s always done but now also has the second full-time job of running the company. Not to mention that he continues to do musical theater when time allows, which is, unfortunately, much less than it used to be. However, he did make his Broadway debut last summer when a new musical he’s been part of for the last few years was invited for a one-night engagement at 54 Below.

Desperate Need For a Dual Home Office

Suffice it to say, we’ve been a bit busy around here – it just hasn’t been with DIY or decor projects. The irony of all of this is that the past few years is when we’ve needed a functional home office the most. Scott started working from home in 2020, and while he now goes into the office sometimes, he still works from home more often than not. Throughout that time, working from home has, embarrassingly, meant working at a table that we sat up on one side of our master bedroom.

Unlike before, when my days were filled with lots of DIY projects, my work on The Book Girls Guide has meant that I now spend most of my time behind my computer. I’ve been alternating between the kitchen table and the small desk in our home office that I turned into my mini, “temporary” office a few years back.

Our Old Home Office – What Didn’t Work

In the meantime, the basement bedroom we set up as a home office when we first moved in (back in 2008) had become a totally non-functional space. When we first moved in, we used the same furniture that we had in our small downtown condo. The small desk definitely didn’t make good use of the space, but back then, neither of us worked from home, so it wasn’t a priority.

I was still working as an attorney back then, and the small desk was all I needed when I brought work home on nights and weekends. But once I quit practicing law, the small desk saw very little use because it wasn’t big enough for any of my craft of DIY projects. Most of my work ended up happening on the kitchen table instead.

In addition to the fact that the room had too much wasted space, it was also in desperate need of a style makeover. Not only were we using the same furniture from our first condo, we’d also used the exact same wall color and decor from the condo office as well. Everything in this room was circa 2005, and none of it reflected our current style.

From Home Office to Storage Room

Since the old home office saw very little use for many years, over time, it became a catch-all space, and then it turned into more of a storage room. Things really fell apart late in 2020 when Scott’s dad and step-mom were killed in a car accident. After spending months cleaning out their house to prepare it for sale, there were still lots of things that Scott and his brothers just weren’t quite ready to get rid of or make decisions about. And all that stuff ended up either in our formerly beautifully organized garage or in the home office. That’s when it went from storage room to pure chaos. This photo barely does justice to the situation we were dealing with:

Design Direction Influenced By the Adjacent Rooms

Long before the office got so out of control, I’d been playing around with design ideas for this space. Since it’s in the basement adjacent to our family room / game room and right next to the bathroom, I wanted to take the style of those spaces into account.

The basement family room got a major refresh back in 2020/2021. You can see lots of photos of the finished space in this post, but I’ll share a few here so that you can get a sense of the colors and style.

The family room is long and thin, with the couch and TV on one end, and our new game table on the other end. Just past the game table is the bedroom that we use as a home office. And behind the door (in the photo below) is the bathroom.

Then in the fall of 2021, we gave the basement bathroom a major makeover. As much as I love the of throughout the basement family room, it was a terrible idea to paint the bathroom orange back in 2008. We rectified that with lots of white paint, and then we added the navy blue vanity of my dreams. We brought color back into the space through lots of fun framed art.

Home Office Design Inspiration

I love the gray walls in the family room because they make it feel nice and cozy for game nights and movie-watching. The office, on the other hand, will be a space where we spend a lot of our daytime hours. I want it to feel nice and bright despite being in the basement, so white walls (like the bathroom) are a must.

Every version of the office design plans I’ve drawn up over the years has included lots of blue, which will tie in perfectly with the blue cabinet in the adjacent bathroom. And like the bathroom, my final plans call for lots of colorful artwork, with just enough touches of orange and yellow to tie in with the family room.

The only thing I still liked about our old office design was the wall of photos and maps above the desk that featured our travels. The new version of the home office will also highlight our favorite trips around the globe, but in a way that reflects my love of interior design. I plan to create a gallery wall of travel photos, and next to each photo will be a color palette inspired by that picture.

Also, tieing into my love of design and connecting with Scott’s work in apartment development, we’ll be framing apartment floorplans from some of our favorite TV shows (purchased from this Etsy store*). *affiliate link

A Functional Home Office for Two Floorplan

While the mood board above shows the pretty part of the plans, even more important is the function of the space. The old home office was barely functional for one person, let alone two. But it’s imperative that the new space allow both Scott and me to work at the same time. We also need tons more storage, which will come in the form of file cabinets, bookshelves, and closed cabinetry. After many iterations, here’s the floor plan we came up with.

A Look Back At All My Past One Room Challenge Projects

Since 2014, I’ve participated in the One Room Challenge a total of 11 times, transforming our house from top to bottom. Here’s a look back at each of the ORC projects we’ve completed over the years.

Menswear Themed Boy's Bedroom

I participated in my very first One Room Challenge back in the spring of 2014. Baby #2 had recently entered our lives, and needed the nursery, so I designed a menswear themed boy's bedroom for my older son, who was 2.5 at the time. Since that time, the boys now share a different room (also an ORC project below), and we recently made some minor updates to turn this room from a toddler room to a playroom / hangout room.

See the Space

Master Bedroom Makeover Without Replacing the Furniture

The next ORC round, in the fall of 2014, I turned my attention to our master bedroom, which had been largely neglected in the six years since we'd move into our home. I made a big impact in this space without replacing any of the furniture, or even changing the placement of the furniture in the room.

See the Space

Rock 'n' Roll Playroom Under the Stairs

In the spring of 2015, I converted the storage space under our basement stairs into a rock 'n' roll inspired playroom for my boys. At only 3 foot by 12 foot, it's one of the smallest spaces I transformed, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in style and fun! This is still one of my very favorite projects to date, and it was featured in print in 5280 Home magazine!

See the Space

A Laundry Closet That Functions Like a Laundry Room

In the fall of 2015, I finally achieved my goal of making our laundry closet feel and function more like a laundry room by adding tons of style and storage, including removable wallpaper and, a hanging light fixture, and bold cabinets.

See the Space

Modern Master Bathroom Makeover

The following spring, in 2016, I updated our master bathroom to match the "graphic glam" style of the adjoining bedroom. The wall of graphic black and white cement tile and statement light fixtures are the stars of the show. I was thrilled with what a huge transformation we created in this space without replacing any of the existing cabinets or fixtures.

See the Space

Garage Organization with Style

Later that fall, I tackled the much dreaded garage! I was hoping to just create a more functional storage space, but in the process of cleaning and organizing, thanks to some creative DIYs, I also managed to make the garage pretty! I was incredibly honored to have our garage makeover featured on a two-page spread in the March 2018 issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine!

See the Space

A Small Shared Boys' Room with Bunk Beds

In the spring of 2017, my boys (then 3 and 5) were begging for bunkbeds, so we turned the former nursery into a shared boys room, complete with lots of color and tons of storage for books and toys.

See the Space

Modern Kitchen Dining Area

In the fall of 2018, I took on a modern dining room makeover. We added more storage, finally found a solution to an awkward wall, and made a big statement on the kitchen island. And we did it all on a budget.

See the Space

Colorful Rooftop Retreat

In the spring of 2019, we turned our unused deck off of our master bedroom into a colorful and comfortable rooftop retreat for the whole family to enjoy. This deck is perfect for lounging and enjoying the summer weather, and when the sun goes down, it quickly transforms into an outdoor movie theater.

See the Space

Ultimate Game Room

In the spring of 2021, we turned our basement family room into the ultimate game room, complete with a custom-built game table, comfy banquette seating, and tons of hidden storage for all of our games and puzzles. On the other end of the basement, our home theater includes a stylish popcorn and candy bar.

See the Space

Bright Basement Bathroom

In the fall of 2021, we took our orange basement bathroom from bold but boring to a bright and stylish space. The playful artwork reflects our family's love of the theater.

Read More

The post Dual Home Office Design Plan – One Room Challenge: Week 1 appeared first on Blue i Style.

It probably comes as no surprise that I’m running a bit behind schedule on the One Room Challenge makeover of our basement bathroom. We got a late start and worked right down to the wire. We are SO close to being done, but there are just a few more projects to finish before I take the final photos. But I do have one photo of the almost finished bathroom below.

Here’s a quick reminder of where we started…

And this was the design plan that I came up with for our One Room Challenge makeover:

After we stripped it down and repainted (Sherwin Williams SW7005 “Pure White”), we were left with a blank palette.

All the major elements of the room are complete – the new vanity is in, as well as the new light and mirror. I finished caulking the countertop (and recaulking the shower) today.

UPDATE: We got all of the artwork hung, as well as the shower curtains. Now there are just a few small projects left to finish up and I’ll finally be ready to properly photograph the space. But in the meantime, here’s one quick iPhone photo of the nearly completed bathroom makeover!

One Room Challenge

As a quick reminder, we’ve been working on this bathroom makeover as part of the One Room Challenge – transforming it from bold but boring into a lighter and brighter space with a lot more style. The ORC was started by Linda Weinstein of Calling It Home, and Better Homes & Gardens is the official media sponsor. If that sounds familiar, it’s because this is my ELEVENTH time participating in the ORC.

In Case You Missed It…

If you want to see where we started and where we’re going, check out the before photos of our basement bathroom, as well as the design plans.  You can also find a round up of all ten of my prior One Room Challenge makeovers at the end of the week 1 post.

The post Basement Bathroom Reveal appeared first on Blue i Style.

In last week’s update, I showed you the deconstructed bathroom – with the old pedestal sink, light and mirror removed. Next up was painting… we knew it would need at least a couple of coats of primer to cover up the bright orange paint. Here’s how it look after the first coat of primer:

And here’s the final color – Sherwin Williams SW7005 “Pure White” – after two coats of primer and two coats of paint:

With the paint complete, I assembled the navy blue vanity. I attached the base upside down the first time (should’ve read the instructions – face palm!), but I got it right on the second try.

The back of the vanity is open for the plumbing, but our existing pipe sat an inch or two too low. Fortunately, Scott was able to cut a notch out of the back to make it fit perfectly around the pipe. This will all be hidden behind the vanity doors, so it didn’t have to be perfect.

With the vanity in place, we used Loctite Mirror, Marble & Granite to affix the small piece of backsplash quartz to the wall.

Next Scott installed the new light fixture. The vanity has a black metal base and gold handles, so I chose a light fixture with a mix of black and gold to tie in both finishes.

Hanging the light first allowed us to then decide on the correct placement for the mirror. We wanted to make sure it wouldn’t look too high above the vanity, or too low compared to the light.

We still need to caulk along the back edge of the countertop, and where the backsplash meets the wall, but that will be quick and easy.

With the major elements installed, it’s time for me to work on the finishing touches. I need to get frames for the art (I’m thinking gold), and I still need to create three of the pieces of art – but that’s the fun part! Will it all get done by the deadline? That’s still questionable, but I’m just impressed with how much we were able to accomplish considering we didn’t start until week 6!

One Room Challenge

As a quick reminder, between now and November 18th(-ISH), we’ll be transforming our basement bathroom from bold but boring into a lighter and brighter space with a lot more style, and I’m doing alongside more than 200 other talented designers as guest participants in the One Room Challenge. The ORC was started by Linda Weinstein of Calling It Home, and Better Homes & Gardens is the official media sponsor. If that sounds familiar, it’s because this is my ELEVENTH time participating in the ORC.

In Case You Missed It…

If you want to see where we started and where we’re going, check out the before photos of our basement bathroom, as well as the design plans.  You can also find a round up of all ten of my prior One Room Challenge makeovers at the end of the week 1 post.

The post Basement Bathroom Makeover: Week 7 {One Room Challenge} appeared first on Blue i Style.

Considering we’re six weeks behind, I thought about just throwing in the towel. But I also really want this project done before the holidays {the new vanity has been sitting in a box in our entry way for months now… and I’m over it!}. So we decided to do something we rarely do, and we hired a painter.

In preparation for the paint, we deconstructed the bathroom at about 10 pm tonight, so at least I have an update photo to share.

I’m not sad to say goodbye to the orange walls. Soon this space will be pure white… literally. Sherwin Williams SW7005 “Pure White” to be exact.

Choosing a white paint isn’t as easy as you might think, because just like with other paint colors, the undertones can make a big difference. It’s easiest to see the differences when you hold a bunch of “white” paint swatches side by side. Suddenly some of them look yellow, or pink, or beige, or blue. Before you pick another paint color, it’s important to understand not only undertones, but also how light and sheen affect the finished look. I’ve got a great guide on how to pick paint colors (I use gray as the example in the post, but the tips apply to any color!).

One Room Challenge

As a quick reminder, between now and November 18th(-ISH), we’ll be transforming our basement bathroom from bold but boring into a lighter and brighter space with a lot more style, and I’m doing alongside more than 200 other talented designers as guest participants in the One Room Challenge. The ORC was started by Linda Weinstein of Calling It Home, and Better Homes & Gardens is the official media sponsor. If that sounds familiar, it’s because this is my ELEVENTH time participating in the ORC.

In Case You Missed It…

If you want to see where we started and where we’re going, check out the before photos of our basement bathroom, as well as the design plans.  You can also find a round up of all ten of my prior One Room Challenge makeovers at the end of the week 1 post.

The post Basement Bathroom Makeover: Weeks 4, 5 & 6 {One Room Challenge} appeared first on Blue i Style.

One Room Challenge

As a quick reminder, between now and November 18th, we’ll be transforming our basement bathroom from bold but boring into a lighter and brighter space with a lot more style, and I’m doing alongside more than 200 other talented designers as guest participants in the One Room Challenge. The ORC was started by Linda Weinstein of Calling It Home, and Better Homes & Gardens is the official media sponsor. If that sounds familiar, it’s because this is my ELEVENTH time participating in the ORC, and you’ll find a round up of all of my prior One Room Challenge makeovers at the end of the week 1 post.

The Basement Bathroom Design Plans…

In case you’re just tuning in, here’s another quick reminder of the current state of the bathroom:

Obviously it wouldn’t take a whole lot to improve upon that situation, but I’m so excited about what we have planned. The charcoal slate floor and white subway tile will stay, but everything else is getting a refresh. We’ll be painting the walls white, replacing the pedestal sink with a navy blue vanity that will provide much needed storage, changing out the light and the mirror, and adding lots of black and white finishing touches.

The adjoining family room/game room (which we made over during the last round of the One Room Challenge just a few months back) has grey walls, white bookshelves, and pops of orange and yellow. The game room decor includes lots of nods to our love of theater and NYC. I plan to add some colorful art to this otherwise neutral bathroom to help to tie the two spaces together.

Above the toilet, I’ll be framing and hanging this Broadway costume poster:

And then on the wall opposite the toilet, I’m going to create custom art inspired by this Pantone theater poster. I’ll design three of my own color swatch art prints to showcase the colors of our personal favorite Broadway shows, as well as our favorite spots in NYC, and in our hometown of Denver.

Before I wrap it up for this week, I’ll add the links to each of the items that are included in our bathroom plans. Note that these are affiliate links, so if you purchase something I recommend, you’ll pay the same price, but I may receive a small commission.

Basement Bathroom Plans

Blue Bathroom Vanity

Purchase

Black Gold Vintage Light Fixture

Purchase

4-Light Bathroom Vanity Light

Purchase

Round Corner Mirror

Purchase

Matte Black Faucet

Purchase

Black & White Striped Baskets

Purchase

Customizable Tile Mat

Purchase

Black and White Striped Towels

Purchase

Black & White Striped Shower Curtain

Purchase

Shower Curtain Hooks

Purchase

Black Tension Shower Rod

Purchase

Toilet Paper Holder

Purchase

Broadway Costumes Poster

Purchase

Broadway Pantone Poster

Purchase

The post Basement Bathroom Makeover: Week 3 {One Room Challenge} appeared first on Blue i Style.

One Room Challenge

Between now and November 18th, we’ll be transforming our basement bathroom from bold but boring into a lighter and brighter space with a lot more style, and I’m doing alongside more than 200 other talented designers as guest participants in the One Room Challenge. The ORC was started by Linda Weinstein of Calling It Home, and Better Homes & Gardens is the official media sponsor. If that sounds familiar, it’s because this is my ELEVENTH time participating in the ORC, and you’ll find a round up of all of my prior One Room Challenge makeovers at the end of last week’s post.

Where We’re At…

Last week I shared some photos of how the basement bathroom looked when bought the house 13 years ago (basic builder beige). Shortly after we moved it, we painted the bathroom the polar opposite of boring beige … bold orange. It had potential, but I never got around to finish the art and other decor that would have made this orange work. Instead it got stuck at bold but boring. Here’s a reminder of where we are staring from.

Where We’re Going…

Ok, now that I’ve reminded you where we’re at, let’s talk about where we are going. We don’t plan to change any of the tile in the bathroom, so the white subway tile in the shower and the charcoal slate on the floor both stay. But the orange paint and the pedestal sink are on their way out!

We’ll be painting the walls white – but picking a white paint is harder than it sounds because there are so many “white” options. I’ll talk more about that later, since, as I said, I haven’t made much progress yet.

Then we plan to replace the pedestal sink with a vanity that includes a combo of both open and closed storage. I absolutely love the navy blue vanity trend, and this bathroom seems like the perfect place for it.

The overall vibe of the bathroom is going to be a much more sophisticated style than what we have now. We’ll pull some bold color in with some fun art, and there will definitely be a few touches of orange to tie in the with pops of orange in our adjoining game room, but overall the color scheme of the bathroom will primarily be blue, black, and white.

Inspiration Photos

These photos capture the vibe we are going to for in the new space:

One thing that jumps out at me in each of these inspiration photos is that they all have lighter floors which create a nice contrast against the dark blue vanities. Since we are keeping the existing charcoal slate tiles in our bathroom, I’ll likely need to rely on a rug to help create this balance.

Another commonality is that they all have very similar rounded corner, rectangular mirrors. I really love this mirror shape, and I’ve found several similar, affordable options.

The post Basement Bathroom Makeover: Week 2 {One Room Challenge} appeared first on Blue i Style.

One Room Challenge

This is my 11th time participating in the One Room Challenge, so most of you are probably familiar with it by now, but I’ll start with a quick explanation in case you’re new around here. The ORC was started by Linda Weinstein of Calling It Home, and Better Homes & Gardens is the official media sponsor. The challenge was historically six weeks long, but it’s been extended to eight weeks for 2021 to take into account ongoing supply shortages and shipping delays resulting from the pandemic.

For the next seven weeks, I’ll be posting weekly updates to show you the progress as we take this bathroom from bold but boring to bright and sophisticated, leading up to the final reveal on November 18th! The best part of the One Room Challenge is that I’m not going it alone! Each ORC round, there are twenty amazingly talented designers who headline the event, posting their updates each Tuesday night. Participation in the ORC is also open to other design bloggers, referred to as Guest Participants, and we post our progress updates each Wednesday night. The ORC gets bigger and more exciting every round, often with more than 200 participants!

For me, that means sharing encouragement with lots of fellow designers… for you, that means endless inspiration for every room of the house in every style! All of the participating bloggers share the links to their weekly progress posts on the One Room Challenge website, so you can find all of the ORC progress posts and final reveals in one convenient place!

We Take Two Steps Forward, We Take One Step Back…

People often comment that we can’t possibly have any projects left to do in our house, but contrary to popular belief we still have a long list that we have been working out way through since we moved in 13 years ago, and the list continues to grow. I think that when you live in a house long enough (especially a house where you have plans to stay in the house indefinitely), the project list never ends. It’s more like you take two steps forward and one step back. Each project you finish leads to something else that you’d like to update. We’re always making progress and moving in the right direction, but I’m not sure we’ll ever be “done.” This has certainly been the story in our basement…

When we first moved in, we painted and minimally decorated each room in the basement – the family room, the bathroom, and the bedroom that serves as an office/craft room. We had lots of ideas and plans to do more with each of these spaces, but they were functional enough and just never rose to the top of the to do list. But during COVID, we started spending much more family time in the basement, and we found ourselves motivated to finally give the basement the attention it deserves.

This spring/summer we transformed our basement family room into the ultimate game room, and we LOVE it! Since completing that makeover, the game room has become the most used space in our home – from family movie and game nights to entertaining family and friends. But now that the game room is complete, I find myself cringing when our guests use the basement bathroom, and I’ve been itching to give it an update as well. Like I said… two steps forward, one step back.

For context, here’s a quick look at the basement floorplan. The basement is long and thin, with the bathroom at the far end, just past our new game table.

Basement Bathroom Then and Now…

Let’s start with a few photos of how the bathroom looked when we first moved in. The white subway tile and charcoal gray slate floor give this bathroom a great foundation, and in the interest of keeping this makeover on a very tight budget, we don’t plan to change any of the tile.

If you know my style, then you won’t be surprised to learn that those beige walls didn’t last very long after we moved in. I love color, and I’m not afraid to go bold… and wow did we go bold in this bathroom.

I’ve learned a lot of design lessons over the years, and this one was learned the hard way… shiny white bathroom surfaces reflect the colors around them. So when you paint a bathroom orange, the white surfaces take on a “lovely” peachy hue…

Putting a shower curtain on each side of the shower helped to cut down some of the peachy reflection on the white subway tile.

We took down the large rectangular mirror that was originally in the bathroom, but we made a definite design mistake by hanging a round, frameless mirror that’s a bit too small for the space. A frame around the mirror would have helped to break up the orange and would have given the room the room another, much needed focal point.

Next week I’ll be sharing our plans to update this bathroom, but you probably won’t be surprised that first on the list is new paint. The other top priority for this bathroom makeover is adding storage – which means the pedestal sink has to go.

I hope you’ll join me each Thursday as I share our progress on this bathroom project! In the meantime, here’s a look back at each of my previous One Room Challenge makeovers…

Menswear Themed Boy's Bedroom

I participated in my very first One Room Challenge back in the spring of 2014. Baby #2 had recently entered our lives, and needed the nursery, so I designed a menswear themed boy's bedroom for my older son, who was 2.5 at the time. Since that time, the boys now share a different room (also an ORC project below), and we recently made some minor updates to turn this room from a toddler room to a playroom / hangout room.

See the Space

Master Bedroom Makeover Without Replacing the Furniture

The next ORC round, in the fall of 2014, I turned my attention to our master bedroom, which had been largely neglected in the six years since we'd move into our home. I made a big impact in this space without replacing any of the furniture, or even changing the placement of the furniture in the room.

See the Space

Rock 'n' Roll Playroom Under the Stairs

In the spring of 2015, I converted the storage space under our basement stairs into a rock 'n' roll inspired playroom for my boys. At only 3 foot by 12 foot, it's one of the smallest spaces I transformed, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in style and fun! This is still one of my very favorite projects to date, and it was featured in print in 5280 Home magazine!

See the Space

A Laundry Closet That Functions Like a Laundry Room

In the fall of 2015, I finally achieved my goal of making our laundry closet feel and function more like a laundry room by adding tons of style and storage, including removable wallpaper and, a hanging light fixture, and bold cabinets.

See the Space

Modern Master Bathroom Makeover

The following spring, in 2016, I updated our master bathroom to match the "graphic glam" style of the adjoining bedroom. The wall of graphic black and white cement tile and statement light fixtures are the stars of the show. I was thrilled with what a huge transformation we created in this space without replacing any of the existing cabinets or fixtures.

See the Space

Garage Organization with Style

Later that fall, I tackled the much dreaded garage! I was hoping to just create a more functional storage space, but in the process of cleaning and organizing, thanks to some creative DIYs, I also managed to make the garage pretty! I was incredibly honored to have our garage makeover featured on a two-page spread in the March 2018 issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine!

See the Space

A Small Shared Boys' Room with Bunk Beds

In the spring of 2017, my boys (then 3 and 5) were begging for bunkbeds, so we turned the former nursery into a shared boys room, complete with lots of color and tons of storage for books and toys.

See the Space

Modern Kitchen Dining Area

In the fall of 2018, I took on a modern dining room makeover. We added more storage, finally found a solution to an awkward wall, and made a big statement on the kitchen island. And we did it all on a budget.

See the Space

Colorful Rooftop Retreat

In the spring of 2019, we turned our unused deck off of our master bedroom into a colorful and comfortable rooftop retreat for the whole family to enjoy. This deck is perfect for lounging and enjoying the summer weather, and when the sun goes down, it quickly transforms into an outdoor movie theater.

See the Space

Ultimate Game Room

In the spring of 2021, we turned our basement family room into the ultimate game room, complete with a custom-built game table, comfy banquette seating, and tons of hidden storage for all of our games and puzzles. On the other end of the basement, our home theater includes a stylish popcorn and candy bar.

See the Space

Bright Basement Bathroom

In the fall of 2021, we took our orange basement bathroom from bold but boring to a bright and stylish space. The playful artwork reflects our family's love of the theater.

Read More

The post Basement Bathroom Makeover: Week 1 {One Room Challenge} appeared first on Blue i Style.